Strawberry Heaven

You have got to love a home builder like ours (thanks Martha!) even more this time of the year. Our rockery was planted with strawberries and sedums – both easy care. Every day we are harvesting organic strawberries from our front yard. One of our neighbors, with the sunniest lot and the most strawberry plants, invited me to pick a big bowl of her berries. So of course, I made strawberry shortcakes using the Barefoot Contessa’s first cookbook. You know it is going to be delicious when there is plenty of butter and egg oozing out of them while baking in your oven to set off your smoke detector! (The alarm company wasn’t too happy to hear I was trying a new scone recipe.)

Next up was Strawberry Oven Jam, sweetened with some honey, from Sunset’s One-Block Feast Book. Really easy, and did our whole house smell delectable!

While that was baking, I then made Strawberry Lemon Balm/Verbena Syrup from Emelie Tolley’s The Herbal Pantry. I am over the moon with this tasty creation. I’ll do a future post on the homemade condiments that are filling up our refrigerator. Having these on hand is making meal preparations way more creative. Yesterday I picked from our garden: lemon balm, lemon verbena, chocolate mint (to make another herbal syrup), strawberries and rainbow swiss chard for dinner plus a big bowl full to share with another neighbor.

Our garden is my solace. I feel rich from all its blessings.

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This entry was posted on June 30, 2011 at 8:31 AM and is filed under Gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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